Bokum, Frances Amanda Butcher (1888-1987) (“Fanny”). American newspaper critic and bookstore owner. Born in Fredonia, KS, Butcher moved to Chicago, IL, as a child. She received an A.A. from Lewis Institute in 1908 and a BA from the University of Chicago in 1910. In 1911, Floyd Dell of the Chicago Evening Post assigned her to review Alexander’s Bridge (1912). Cather wrote the anonymous reviewer care of the Post, beginning their correspondence and friendship. From 1913 until her retirement in 1963, Butcher wrote for the Chicago Tribune, becoming literary editor in 1922. She ran Fanny Butcher Books in Chicago from 1919 until 1927, when she sold it to Doubleday. Cather frequently saw Butcher when she changed trains in Chicago and closely followed Butcher’s reviews of her works, often writing to her about them. She also relied on Butcher’s knowledge of the book business and particularly book distribution in the Midwest. Their extant correspondence begins in 1920, although in her memoir Many Lives—One Love (1972), Butcher paraphrases earlier letters. Butcher married Richard Drummond Bokum in 1935.

Bokum, Richard Drummond (1885-1963). American advertising executive; Fanny Butcher's husband. Born in Pennsylvania, second son of insurance executive Richard D. Bokum and Anna Harkness Bokum, Richard Bokum came to Chicago to live in 1898. He graduated from Princeton in 1908 and entered the advertising business on his return to Chicago. He married Fanny Butcher in 1935.